In the News: “We’re just keeping on top of it"

From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:

Forgive your town clerk if she looks a little bleary-eyed. 

“We’re working around the clock,” Sudbury Town Clerk Beth Klein said. “We’re working weekends. We’re working late at night.” 

With a little more than a week until the Sept. 1 state primary, town clerks throughout the region set up COVID-19-safe sites for a week of state-mandated, in-person early voting that began Saturday, piling the job on top of weeks of unexpected, labor-intensive, mail-in voting work. 

“We’re trying to do the best we can. It’s just a very, very short time frame that we had to do this,” said Ashland Town Clerk Tara Ward, adding that other town departments have pitched in to help. “It was a tight squeeze. All of a sudden we were slammed.” 

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)  

https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20200822/mail-in-voting-demand-is-straining-local-clerks-offices-heres-reform-clerks-say-they-need-for-november?rssfeed=true 

Vote Early In Person:  FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL GYM

• Sunday Aug. 23         10:00 AM – 3:00 PM 

• Monday, Aug. 24         9:00 AM – 3:00 PM                      
• Tuesday, Aug. 25         9:00 AM – 3:00 PM             
• Wednesday, Aug. 26    9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
• Thursday, Aug. 27       9:00 AM -  3:00 PM
• Friday, Aug. 28            9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

For additional information on voting visit the Town Clerk page

https://www.franklinma.gov/town-clerk

For the Franklin voters "election collection" visit

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2020/08/2020-election-collection.html

In the News: “We’re just keeping on top of it"

Zooming into the Future, Part 7

Many of Our Zoom Meetings are Invisible

by Pete Fasciano, Executive Director 08/23/2020

Invisible Zoom Meetings?  (Whaaat?)  It just means that we are communicating on all fronts via Zoom, including how our weekly programming is produced for wfpr●fm, Franklin Public Radio. You can’t see them, but you can hear them.

Our mighty group of stalwart RadioGang volunteers (Stalwart was my word-o-the day.) are at it every week, producing music programs, interviewing important local guests, and providing timely information. My kudos and deepest thanks to all of them for a staunch dedication that elevates us as a small local station to a national level of professionalism through their unwavering pride of purpose. We are fortunate.

Frank Falvey, Jim Derick, Todd Monjar, Steve Sherlock, Dr. Anne Bergen, Dale Kurtz, Mark Lenzi, Kim Simone, Jay Horrigan, Pandora Carlucci and guests rise to the moment through a slew of Zoom-powered interviews that keep us keepin’ on.

Our ongoing success is all their fault. ( Note that a ‘slew’ is even more than a bunch. )

This week? The candidates are up front.

On Monday through Wednesday you can hear interviews with the candidates. Frank Falvey has been interviewing the many candidates running for the Fourth District seat. Learn all about them in their own words on 102.9 fm.

And – as always –
Thank you for listening to wfpr●fm. And, thank you for watching.

This week's full program guide can be found online

http://franklin.tv/programguide.pdf

or for archive purposes use this one   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r43VaJR5nW9FGYad08TObBFVmX8YD-Eh/view?usp=sharing

Zooming into the Future, Part 7

THE BLACK BOX: Montgomery and Marshall Duo - Aug 28

THE BLACK BOX welcomes the Montgomery and Marshall Duo with two shows on August 28 at 6:30 and 8:15 PM in the theater’s parking lot.  

James Montgomery and Bruce Marshall are celebrating 26 years together as a duo in 2020.  They started in 1994 after Bruce Marshall auditioned for the James Montgomery Band and asked James if he was interested in acoustic work as a duo. Their first gig was opening for the Band at the State Theater in Providence, RI and old friend Rick Danko introduced the pair as “the real deal”. Although Marshall didn’t get the electric gig, he ended up forging an enduring musical and personal relationship with James that continues to flourish.  

Get tickets online or call the box office https://www.theblackboxonline.com/events.php?id=1398&month=08&year=2020

THE BLACK BOX:  Montgomery and Marshall Duo - Aug 28

4th Congressional District Race: A Town Hall on Race and Racism (re-broadcast schedule)

The 4th Congressional District Race: A Town Hall on Race and Racism held on Aug 19, 2020 is scheduled for re-broadcast on Franklin TV this week.

Franklin All-Access 
Comcast Channel 8; Verizon Channel 26

• Sunday, Aug 23 - 8:30 PM
• Tuesday, Aug 25 - 8:30 PM
• Wednesday, Aug 26 - 10:00 AM
• Thursday, Aug 27 - 3:30 PM

Franklin Town Hall  
Comcast Channel 11; Verizon Channel 29

• Wednesday, Aug 26 - 8:00 AM
• Wednesday, Aug 26 - 2:00 PM

The audio for this Town Hall is available here
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2020/08/fm-333-4th-district-candidates-town.html

4th Congressional District Race: A Town Hall on Race and Racism

Hockomock Area YMCA Offers Remote Learning Support Programs and Before & After School Care

Our Hockomock Area YMCA knows this academic year will challenge families and present a unique need in our communities, as families will be balancing their children's remote learning needs with their own work schedules and commitments. We have been preparing to adapt our Y's Before & After School Care program to include both full-day remote learning support as needed, along with traditional before and after school care.  These enhanced programs will be comprehensive, supporting your child's virtual learning needs, while providing enrichment, socialization and physical activity each day. 
 
At all three of our YMCA full facility branches in Foxboro, Franklin and North Attleboro, we plan to provide onsite full-day remote learning and enrichment programming Monday through Friday as space allows. We are also identifying additional buildings in communities we serve where we may be able to expand our offering and allow more families to register.

Here is where we are in this process and the next steps we must take.

• All organizations who plan to offer any childcare or school age support program during the school year must be licensed by the state's Department of Early Education and Care (DEEC) in order to operate legally and within the standards that provide quality care and keep children safe.
• All Hockomock Area YMCA childcare and before and after school care programs are licensed by DEEC and we follow their guidelines strictly.
• While local school districts have submitted their final plans to the state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) for approval, and have communicated these plans to families within their community, the DEEC that we depend upon for licensing has not yet issued their revised COVID-19 standards or guidelines. These two state departments coordinate efforts to make sure guidelines are consistent.
• Until these guidelines are released, no program can operate, and we cannot finalize key elements, including staff to child ratios, the number of children allowed per classroom, and revised cleaning protocols.

According to the DEEC, the state should be providing us with the necessary guidelines by the end of this week or early next week. It has been shared with us that organizations like our Y who already have a license will be first in line to expand their care and be approved for the full day remote learning support program.
 
We will be moving forward in the next few days on anticipated program guidelines and making registration for families available, with the understanding that the entire program is pending on state approval.

If you would like to receive future updates and registration information once it’s available, please complete our online contact form by CLICKING HERE (https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=PpzOnpumbUWH4PxDDFqr5r-uLr_JgcNOrd_wDdoe02lUNjVMSzM3WDdDMzhBVDk2QkVJUThPTDJQSSQlQCN0PWcu).

Hockomock Area YMCA
Bernon Family Branch
45 Forge Hill Road, Franklin, MA 02038
Phone: 508-528-8708
http://www.hockymca.org/franklin

Hockomock Area YMCA 

In the News: "The results of the study are expected in four to six weeks"

From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:

"Germany held a pop concert Saturday to see how those attending could spread coronavirus if they had it. 

German researchers studying COVID-19 packed part of a Leipzig arena with volunteers, collecting data in a “real life” simulation of a pop concert but one with strict health and safety controls. 

About 1,500 people took part in the experiment run by the University Hospital in Halle, each taking a coronavirus test ahead of time, testing negative, and having to wear protective masks throughout the day’s testing. 

Researchers equipped each volunteer with contact tracers to record their routes in the arena and track the path of the aerosols — the small particles that could carry the virus — they emitted as they mingled and talked. Fluorescent disinfectants were used to highlight which surfaces at the mock concert were touched most frequently."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.milforddailynews.com/zz/news/20200822/how-does-coronavirus-spread-at-concert-germans-do-test/1?rssfeed=true

In the News: "The results of the study are expected in four to six weeks"

In the News: Dean goes remote learning; post-pandemic Cape Cod maybe more unaffordable

From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:

"Under normal circumstances, Dean College would be getting ready to welcome students from near and far back to campus 

Not so in the world of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Instead, the campus in downtown Franklin will remain a quiet oasis as the college goes with a fully remote fall semester. 

In a statement posted on the Dean College website, President Paula Rooney noted that a lot of careful consideration was given to how the college would approach a return to classes for the 2020-21 academic year. 

“Throughout this process, the health and well-being of our entire community has been and will continue to be our primary concern,” she stated."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20200822/dean-college-will-be-remote-for-fall?rssfeed=true

Dean goes remote learning; 

"Cape Cod officials said Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial disruption it’s caused for many have shined a spotlight on connections between housing, health care and the economy.

On a call with other members of the Cape’s reopening task force, state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, said he’s worried that trends in the housing market linked to COVID-19 “will only exacerbate how Cape Cod is so profoundly unaffordable.”

Cyr said housing and the lack of affordable places to live was one of the biggest, most urgent issues facing the Cape and Islands region, where much new housing production caters to second-home buyers, before the pandemic hit.

“Cape Codders of my generation are struggling to make a life here,” Cyr said, adding that the crisis has revealed existing societal inequities to be “gaping fissures.”

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20200822/post-pandemic-cape-could-be-more-unaffordable-officials-fear?rssfeed=true